Journaling. Scheduling. Ordering. 3 words that everybody either loves, or hates. You will always know that one person who will, for instance, order their coloured pencils, colour-code their journal,, and they will definitely own the most amount of highlighters known to man. Despite their sometimes strange habits, these people always know what they are doing, why they are doing, and when they are doing it. Some call it obsessive, I call it the perfect way to live! As someone who does not like surprises, knowing that I have a specific time schedule to get everything done in a day is such a great help, and definitely motivates me to do more!
But when I talk about scheduling and journaling, I don’t just mean for tomorrow, or even the day after that, I mean the future, your future, and everything you want to do. It has been proven time and time again that planning ahead and setting goals ahead of time is the best way to almost ensure that you will get what you want, when you want it. Which is exactly what I have done! And it has definitely made it so much easier, with a bit of help, surprisingly, from a technique I learnt in school!
When I was in secondary school, one of the many things that they would drill into my head was a way to set goals, using the anagram SMART ( Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound). Like most things, I would always think that this was pretty much useless, and would in no way help me to get a job or buy my own house. But, I have recently come to realise how useful this technique actually is, and have definitely been using it more often! So, I figured that I would show you exactly how to use this tool, and the best way to make the most out of it!
First, you need to establish roughly what you want to achieve, what your general goal is. Got that? Next step! You need to be specific now, write exactly what you want to do, every little detail and every little point (don’t worry, I’ll be showing you my goal in-depth at the end of this post). After you have done this, you have to make sure your goal is measurable, so decide how you are going to measure your progress and keep on top of how you are progressing. Next, you need to be honest with yourself; is this goal attainable? Can you see yourself achieving this with the resources and time you have available to you? Try to list all of the changes that you will need to make to reach this goal of yours, and it will make it a lot simpler in the long run. Now, is it realistic? Is it possible? If it is, now you need to decide when you want this to be achieved by. Usually, you should give yourself a short, but reasonable, time frame to achieve your goal, depending on what it actually is.
See, it is a lot simpler than it looks isn’t it? Honestly, the 5 minutes that you put into writing and planning your goal will definitely be worth it in the end, as you will notice how you feel more spurred on to actually achieve this goal, rather than just sitting down and waiting for it to simply fall into your arms. So let me know in the comments, what is your goal, and how do you intend to reach it? Toodles!
My SMART Goal:
My goal is to own my own small business, manufacturing and selling my very own wax melts and candles, after I make my own branding and Etsy shop all by myself! I will measure my achievements by celebrating every step I get closer to achieving this goal, such as creating my own logo, and making my first batch of wax melts. I will put aside money to achieve this, and avoid impulsive and unnecessary spending on items that I don’t really need in the long run. I believe my goal is realistic, and I will have achieved it by December 31st 2020!
For business inquiries, you can email me at gjwhelan@outlook.com, add me on Twitter, or add me on Instagram!
It was February, in the year of 1959, and 9 ski hikers were ascending the Ural Mountains in Russia. The experienced group were all working at Ural Polytechnical Institute, and the group was led by Igor Dyatlov, who was expecting to receive Grade III hiker certificate upon their arrival back to base. With him was Yuri Nikolayevich Doroshenko, Lyudmila Alexandrovna Dubinina, Georgiy Alexeyevich Krivonischenko, Alexander Sergeyevich Kolevatov, Zinaida Alekseevna Kolmogorova, Rustem Vladimirovich Slobodin, Nikolai Vladimirovich Thibeaux-Brignolles, Semyon Alekseevich Zolotaryov, and Yuri Yefimovich Yudin, all men and women who were experienced skiers.
However, no matter how much experience they had, it clearly could not prevent the following and quite disturbing events. After the group of 10 did not return, people began to grow increasingly concerned, as Dyatlov had said that they would send a telegram message when they arrived back in Vizhai, the last inhabited settlement that far north. He had made a deadline of February 12th, although he anticipated that it would most likely take longer than that. Therefore, when the group did not originally send the telegram message, no immediate action was taken. When it got to February 20th, however, friends and relatives demanded a search party to be sent out to look for them, as their concern began to grow. At first, the search group consisted of a few students and volunteers, but when the still could not track down the whereabouts of the group, the army, search helicopters and the military had to intervene.
On February 26th, the rescue group finally came across the base camp, which was covered in snow. The tent had been ripped to shreds, appearing to have been torn apart from the inside. Not only this, but all of their shoes and equipment was still their, yet there was no sight of anyone living. A track of nine individual’s footprints could be followed to the nearby woods, where they quickly disappeared under the snow. However, the remains of a small campfire had been uncovered, and nearby lay two decaying bodies, which were easily recognised as Krivonischenko and Doroshenko, both completely naked but their underwear. After surveying the scene, rescuers had found that the branches on the trees above had been snapped, signalling that one of the skiers had attempted to climb the trees and locate something, possibly their camp. As their search widened, 3 more bodies were found; Dyatlov, Kolmogorova, and Slobodin. All were a small distance apart from each other, suggesting they were all tracking separately towards the tent, and the positions in which they were found in also signaled this. These were the last bodies to be found from the group for over 2 months, until May 4 when the remaining four skiers (Zolotaryov, Thibeaux-Brignolles, Kolevatov, and Dubinina) were finally located under 4 metres of snow in a ravine 75 metres away from the others. It is believed that the first bodies that had been found naked had had their clothing removed from them, in order to provide warmth for the others, as Dubinina was wearing Krivonischenko’s trousers and jacket.
The discovery of the final 4 bodies shifted the entire narrative of the investigation into their deaths. After studying the first 5 bodies, the determined cause of death was hypothermia, as there was no other clear injuries , other than Slobodin’s very slight head fracture, which would not have proven to be fatal. However, after examining the other 4 bodies, the entire attitude towards the occurrence changed. 3 of the hikers had seriously fatal injuries, as Thibeaux-Brignolles had a major head injury, and Dubinina and Zolotaryov both had fatal chest fractures. However, the force that would have been needed to exert such force would have had to have been immense, such as a major car accident. Not only this, but it was believed that it would have needed to be a vast amount of pressure, rather than a sudden blast of force to cause such injuries, as there was no evidence of trauma externally, another extremely odd occurrence in this case. While the fatal injuries were quite abnormal, they were not unheard of, so it wasn’t too difficult to come up with scenarios for the cause. However, it did not stay this way for long. As the examination continued, it was found that each of the 4 bodies found in the creek had soft-tissue damage to their face and head. For instance, Dubinina was missing her lips, tongue and eyes, Zolotaryov was missing his eyeballs, while Kolevatov was missing just his eyebrows. It was decided that these had been removed after death, due to the positions of the bodies, and the investigation took almost a full stop from there.
There were initial suspects, such as the Mansi people, who lived on the mountains. Their proposed motive was that they had murdered them for hiking onto their land. The reindeer-herders were quickly ruled out as a subject, however, as there was no sign of a struggle, extra footprints in the snow, and the pressure that caused the injury was confessed to be one that a human could not generate, especially without external injuries. This really did halt the case, as there was no other evidence or explanation that could have explained the cause of these deaths.
As the case was closed, people began to forget about the absurdity of it all, as the case remained closed. However, in 2019 it was opened in Russia again, however they are only investigating 3 possible causes; an avalanche, a hurricane, and a ‘snow slab’ avalanche. Many could argue that they are ignoring significant evidence, specifically the soft tissue damage on the last 4 bodies discovered, and the radiation that was actually picked up on one of the victim’s clothing. While it is increasingly unlikely that we will ever know the truth of what actually happened to these 9 ski hikers, but there will always be speculation and theories. For instance, it was theories that the Russian yeti had attacked, while others include infrasound or animal attacks. What do you think is the most likely reason for their deaths? Do you believe that an avalanche is a reasonable explanation, or do you think it is simply a cover-up for something bigger, or even something worse?
For business inquiries, you can email me at gjwhean@outlook.com, add me on Twitter or Instagram.
The Human race is often referred to as the most intelligent species of animal on Earth, due to it’s ability to easily adapt to a new environment, and create or invent tools to make common tasks even simpler. It is because of this that we are constantly discovering new things about our world, such as other species and even about our own. However, some of these facts can be a little bit on the stranger side, and some are just plain ridiculous. Which is why I decided to make a list of 10 of the strangest facts that I could find!
The longest time between 2 twins being born was 87 days!
A group of crows is called a murder!
Tomato Sauce was originally sold in the 1800s as medicine!
A single sneeze can travel 100mph!
When you are born, you only have 1 pint of blood in your body!
The cigarette lighter was made before the matchstick!
The hottest spot in the world is California!
McDonald’s once created bubblegum flavour broccoli!
A cat version of the corgi exists – the Munchkin cat!
When you shave a guinea pig it looks like a tiny hippo!
So, here are the 10 strangest facts that I could find! I have written about this topic before, but I thought I would revisit it, with a bit of a more light-hearted and funny twist. I hope you like this list, and remember to leave your favourite fact in the comments below! Toodles!
For business inquiries you can email me at gjwhelan@outlook.com add me on Twitter or add me on Instagram.
We all love going on holiday, the heat, the food, the ocean. However, thousands of people are actually afraid of the ocean. For example, my younger sister is deathly afraid of the ocean, because of the darkness and the mystery of what actually lurks within it. Including the infamous shark!
There is believed to be a minimum of one billion sharks in all of the oceans across the world, ranging from the infamous Great White Shark, to the lesser known species of the Megamouth Shark (sounds like some people I know!). While some are entirely harmless to the human species, like the basking shark, others do have a history of attacking humans, sometimes even fatally. It is because of these deadly, yet rare, attacks that so many are skeptical of these often beautiful creatures.
On July 1, 1916, Charles Vansant was out for a swim in Beach Haven, New Jersey. Shortly after, a huge chunk of flesh was ripped off of his leg, and he unfortunately bled out soon after. This was the first ever recorded shark attack on a human, and at first they weren’t even sure whether the apparent beast was a shark, as there was no definite evidence to even suggest that a shark could act in such an aggressive manner towards people. It was from this moment onward that more and more people fell victim to the shark’s powerful jaws.
However, the reasons for these attacks is still a topic that is highly debated. For example, one of the many theories that scientists have come up with is the term “rogues”. This is used to describe a shark that has strayed from it’s natural diet of fish, and essentially grown to crave human flesh. Gory, I know. While these sharks are apparently rare, it does send a chill down my spine knowing that there could be sharks out there who rely solely on people to keep them alive.
While there are multiple theories on the cause of a shark’s aggressive behaviour, one of the most commonly accepted ones is due to the shark’s ability to see in murky water. A staple part of many species of sharks’ diet is seal, which float vertically at the water’s surface. Like humans do. So it could be said that sharks could mistake the silhouette of a person for a seal, making it a seemingly innocent mistake, on the shark’s behalf. Not only this, but before a shark eats something unusual, or something it is uncertain of, it will take what is known as an exploratory bite, where it will take a bite of something and swim away, as it tries to decipher whether it is a threat, food, or just something in the way. Which is usually why shark attack victims only suffer with one bite. The only difference is the position of the bite, as if it bites through an artery it could possibly be fatal.
Either inquisitive or murderous, sharks are a species that many people fear. While, in my opinion, humans are technically at fault for invading their home, in their territory, as we are doing with an endless list of other animals. So, you decide: are these animals cold-blooded murderers from birth, or are they simply misunderstood creatures, victims of a booming human population, who tread further and further into lands in which they do not belong? Tell me what you thing in the comments! Toodles!
For business inquiries you can email me at gjwhelan@gmail.com add me on Twitter or add me on Instagram!
Many of you wont know this, but it was my Mum’s birthday a few days ago. And she is probably the hardest person to shop for, because she never actually wants anything. So, with every present you buy it is basically a guess. And this year, I guessed right! I was browsing through Etsy, trying to find something that was pretty, useful and affordable on a small budget. Let me tell you, I literally hit the jackpot! My Mum has always liked nice smells, so wax melts, candles, and sprays. So when I found these wax melts, I ordered them straight away!
When they arrived, the packaging was so neat and sweet, I was already please with my purchase, and so was my Mum! We opened it up, and oh my GOD did it smell simply delicious! We have bought wax melts before, but I have never smelt one so fragrant and fresh, I had to physically restrain myself from taking a huge bite out of it!
Not only was the smell simply delightful, but they just looked beautiful! The snap bar was scented with lime, basil and mandarin, and was so brightly coloured, and the little heart melts were fresh linen, and also had an addition of decorative glitter, which was adorable. When you buy wax melts from a shop or a big brand, you will almost always find that they lack that special touch, that little bit of personal love that makes the product so much better. It is such a great feeling knowing that buying from a small business helps to pay someone’s bills, rather than paying a millionare even more money. And buying from Scent With Love definitely had that personal love, that touch of care that makes you want to buy more and more (which I have done by the way).
One thing that always makes buying a product so much easier is if they have great customer service. And, once again, Scent With Love really did hit the nail on the head. Chloe (who runs Scent With Love) is such a lovely person, who is so understanding and the most thoughtful person that I think I have ever bought a product from. For example, I purchased my product during the UK heatwave. She messaged me swiftly after my purchase, saying how she would not be dispatching my product until the heatwave is over. Her reason with this was of course that she did not want the wax to melt, and ruin it completely. I wasn’t concerned at all, as I had ordered this product several weeks in advance of my Mum’s birthday, and was glad to wait. To me, it is just little gestures like this that really help me to appreciate how much small sellers care about their clients, even more so with Chloe!
When I received my products, and realised just how good they actually were, I immediately knew that I should write a post about them! Small businesses really do not get enough respect, especially since they put so much hard work and detail into their products, which is clear in Chloe’s work! You can find all of her amazing products here, and follow her on Instagram and Facebook! Honestly, I love her stuff so much, and she has definitely found herself a loyal customer on my end! Chloe, if you are reading this, keep doing what you are doing, it is literally amazing! Go check her out, you won’t regret it! Toodles!
For business inquiries you can email me at gjwhelan@gmail.com add me on Twitter or add me on Instagram!
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